Z10 Workstation Experiment
Hypothesis:
The BlackBerry Z10 has sufficient power and features to allow it to be used as a daily use desktop.
Experiment:
Since the BlackBerry Z10 charging cradle is not yet available(with the HDMI ouput) I have connected a microHDMI cable to the Z10. This cable is connected to a HDMI-DVI adapter and then a 1080p computer monitor. Additionally I have connected a Dell Bluetooth keyboard and mouse to the Z10.
Daily, I use certain tools regularly:
- E-Mail
- Web Browser
- SSH
- Remote Desktop
- Office Suite
I wanted to find out if these tools were usable in the above configuration for regular usage.
Tested Tools:
Email: I have been using the built in communications hub on the Z10
Web Browser: I have been using the built in browser on the Z10
SSH: For SSH I have been using the PuTTY port available in BlackBerry World as "Telnet SSH"
Remote Desktop(RDP): I have been using Remote Desktop for BlackBerry from the BlackBerry World
Office Suite: Again using the built in Docs to Go on the Z10
Current Results:
I have connected the above configuration on my desk next to my general workstation. The following are my observations and issues with each part of my work.
General: The inability for the desktop portion of the Z10(icons, app tiles) to rotate is very annoying. I get a single column in the center of my screen with the portrait oriented display. There are huge black bars on both sides. Tonnes of wasted space. Apps that support rotation are still running at about 1280x768, so there is a small black bar on either side even the. Due to the very high resolution, it does not scale great to a large screen. Some items like text boxes and control ribbons can take up 2 or three inches of screen space.
The mouse cursor is ugly. It works fine, but there is only support for one mouse button, and not all apps properly utilize it even there. This needs major improvement, including using the scroll wheel and right mouse button.
The keyboard works for basic functions great, but some keys do not seem to translate reasonably or at all. An example would be volume controls, they do nothing.
Overall it's quite usable, the gestures and side swipes with the mouse are quickly adopted and most of the quirks are quickly worked around.
E-Mail:
Since this app will rotate, it nicely takes up the whole screen. Some elements seem oversized, but are fully usable. Due to the keyboard being connected, we never see the popup onscreen keyboard. Access to all parts of the interface with the mouse work perfectly. Only problem is that the scroll wheel does not work. Navigation of large emails works perfectly, but I would like a way to change the zoom dynamically to fit more on the big screen at a time.
Web Browser:
The web browser works great for showing any page you can throw at it. This really is a killer feature for using this as a desktop. I did find, however, that using internal DNS names was causing problems(eg. stats.company.internal), this is something I have to look into further. Multiple tabs work great. As with email, I do wish there was an easy way to scale the page to fit more on the screen. A huge problem with the browser is that it does not appear to support mouse gestures to scroll around larger pages. This works with email, but not here. I have to use the arrow keys or page up/down on the keyboard to navigate on a page.
SSH:
The SSH program works in the landscape orientation as well, and detects the connected keyboard, so you can have fullscreen SSH connections to multiple servers. There is a bug in this version that makes the font display wrong in landscape, but it can be overcome by changing the font setting, either before or after the connection. Some keys on the keyboard, most notably the ESC key, do not appear to translate properly and this can cause issues with software like VIM that use that key extensively. CTRL and the Function keys do appear to work fine.
Remote Desktop:
This app supports full resolution RDP sessions to windows boxes. It works in both portrait and landscape modes. I found a bug that meant mouse clicks were not detected from a Bluetooth mouse, and the developer(a very responsive individual) has promised to fix this in the next release.
Office Suite:
A very usable suite of basic office tools. I can create and edit documents on the device no problem. The controls are oversized, but it appears to work well with the configuration I an trying. Presentations display amazingly well on this setup, using the mouse to change pages with just a swipe.
Current Conclusions:
Between SSH and RDP I can manage any of the systems that I deal with. There are VNC clients that I have seen, but not used, that might allow remote admin of additional systems. With the web browser supporting all my monitoring software properly, and the email keeping me up to date, I can do the majority of my job from my phone, even as a desktop.
Additional:
Most apps could do with testing using a keyboard and mouse. I will request this from the devs of 3rd party apps, but I have not contacted BlackBerry about this yet.
I would like to see apps that detect an external display and run on at full resolution(ie 1080p). This would be great for the RDP and SSH apps. If the email and web browser were to detect and scale the display, even as an option, this would become a very compelling option for users.
Questions?
Any questions or requests? I'm quite willing to try stuff.
Geek42
Re: Z10 Workstation Experiment
Originally Posted by
Playbookjoe The dock could also run a bare bones version of qnx with another dual core processor and some ram and the phone will just start using those resources as well due to its design.
Lots of possibilities.
This is exactly what I was thinking. The resource sharing aspect is something that really excites me. The possibilities are endless. Let's hope the Z10 & Q10 give them a firm enough financial footing to be able to really innovate in this field. It could be a game changer - if handled well.
Z10 Workstation Experiment
ive been thinking about something like this similarly, but from a development standpoint. would anyone be interested in collaborating to create a desktop application that could manage invoking other apps to run all while providing a desktop like enviroment at 1080?
idk maybe i just dream to big, but this is a project that is to large for just myself. i would love to hear from fellow bb native devs on the mater and see what you think.
if interested in the idea of the project and you are looking for a challenge, pm me and we can start to bounce some idea back and forth.
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